- Note - Most of those captured are whites. I do believe
we may be watching a deliberately Government-created incident - accompanied
by a lot of propaganda. Were these whites were on their way to overthrow
an African country? I would be most surprised. -Jan Lamprecht
-
- HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean
authorities alleged on Tuesday that a cargo plane impounded in Harare on
suspicion of carrying 64 mercenaries was hired by a South African mercenary
organisation and British special forces, state television reported.
-
- The television said investigations in Zimbabwe showed
the plane, impounded late on Sunday at the main Harare international airport,
was linked to a South African firm known as "Executive Outcomes"
that in the past hired mostly former apartheid era South African soldiers
for mercenary and security work across Africa.
-
- The television quoted Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi saying British SAS, or Special Air Service, forces were believed
also to have been involved.
-
- No comment was immediately available from Britain or
South Africa on those charges.
-
- State television said the plane was carrying 20 South
African nationals and groups of Angolans, Congolese, Namibians and one
Zimbabwean carrying a South African passport.
-
- Mineral mining
-
- The crew of the ageing Boeing 727 claimed the plane was
headed for the central African nations of the Congo and Burundi and was
carrying mineral mining personnel.
-
- Earlier, South Africa's ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jerry
Ndou, was attempting to verify the status of those on board the plane,
the South African Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
-
- "Should the allegations that those South Africans
on board are involved in mercenary activities prove true, this would amount
to a serious breach of the Foreign Military Assistance Act, which expressly
prohibits the involvement of South Africans in military activities outside
South Africa without the due authorisation of the National Conventional
Arms Control Committee," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said in
a statement released late on Monday.
-
- Oil discovered
-
- The small west African state of Equatorial Guinea, where
rich oil deposits were recently discovered, has said it is investigating
reports foreign mercenaries were being recruited earlier this year to overthrow
the government.
-
- Zimbabwe state television on Monday broadcast footage
of a white plane with a blue stripe containing satellite telephones, radios,
backpacks, sleeping bags, hiking boots, an inflatable raft, bolt cutters
and what appeared to be a can of Mace. No weapons were shown.
-
- The plane and its passengers, most of them whites, were
taken to a nearby military airfield, the station said.
-
- The plane's registration number, N4610, is assigned to
Dodson Aviation Inc of Ottawa, Kansas, in the United States. However, company
director Robert Dodson said it had sold the aircraft about a week ago.
-
- Zimbabwe state television reported on Tuesday investigators
in Harare said the plane was a former US air force aircraft that had been
bought by Dodson, whose company, the television claimed, had close ties
with the US government.
-
- http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1496015,00.html
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